Currently on 'The Mill on the Floss'. #GeorgeEliot
312. The reason why lovers are never bored with each other's company is because they are always talking about themselves.
Since returning to office in 2025, President Donald Trump has steadily expanded his use of military force abroad.
Here's a look at the second Trump administration’s military interventions so far—from actions in Iran and Venezuela to Iraq, Nigeria, and Somalia.
“Canadians Repairing a Track Under Shellfire” by Innes Meo, 1919, #CanadianWarMuseum.
The artist served as a subaltern on the #WesternFront in the #GreatWar. He left us this piece showing the routine labour of the trenches in combat. Of course, there was nothing routine about it. #fwwhist #CEF #BEF
For the #InternationalWomensDay, I wrote this blogpost commemorating Avis Waterman, the forgotten war correspondent of The Times, who covered the First World War on the Italian front. I have been researching her story during the last 2 years in various archives.
stephanieseul.com/2026/03/avis...
I wrote a book called 'Butler to the World' about the UK's post-empire business model of selling kleptocratic services to baddies. I worry that butlerism has entered the soul of our political class, and they're geopolitically incapable of doing anything but donning white gloves and bringing drinks.
I would like to vote for a party that said: "we keep being buffeted by forces outside our control. This is because we've allowed our capabilities to degrade. We're going to build them up again so some moron can't just bankrupt us with a stupid idea. It will take a while but here's the plan".
that subordination.
That is so well put. I've been struck by this as well. Think of Tony Blair's recent comments about Starmer & the US. Think of our gov.t's continuing pursuit of US security guarantees for a Ukraine peace, as if they would be worth anything. It's like they're psychologically subordinate, & fixed in >>
Wars are never God's plan
March 8, 2026 - Tehran at sunrise today. But the sun is hidden behind a sky filled with smoke. After a night of intensive strikes on oil facilities, thick black clouds now hang over the city, turning morning into something that feels like night.
Roman frescoes depicting women.
#InternationalWomensDay ♀️
“Already won” 🧐
He's not even a George W Bush.
You're right there.
When Trump said to Starmer "You're no Churchill", the obvious and true rejoinder is "Yes, and you're no Franklin Roosevelt."
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian issued a direct apology to his country’s neighbors today as Israeli fighter jets unleashed a massive overnight bombardment on the Iranian capital.
@aiannucci.bsky.social Dear Armando, have you seen this ? It's perfectly real, it's not a parody: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y33...
Noem referring in any way to Orwell as if he backed her up is of course absurd and Orwellian, as people have been saying.
"of his power to create telling phrases. It would be difficult to hit off the one-eyed pacifism of the English in fewer words than in the phrase, 'making mock of uniforms that guard you while you sleep.'" You need to read the whole essay for the full context of his point.
IDK if Orwell wrote something closer to that somewhere else than he did in his essay on Kipling. For sheer pedantry, I read it, & in that essay, Orwell wrote, ending with a quote from Kipling: "A humanitarian is always a hypocrite, & Kipling's understanding of this is perhaps the central secret >>
Brilliant reporting, James. I heard you on PM.
“This is war”
No signs of a weakening regime from the keyhole view of the Iranian border.
🎥 Maarten Lernout
Zeynep Erdim
For reasons, I once looked up the French for 'pillory'. It's 'le pilori', & I thought "You can't just stick 'le' in front of it and then it's French !" (The reason is both words come from the same root, nevertheless.)OTOH I believe the phrase 'double entendre' doesn't mean anything to French people.
Tricky.
Nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus - We can endure neither our vices nor the remedies for them. - Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Preface 9.
God this is dystopian. Ad in Paris Metro for an AI “friend”.
